Prince Harry ‘destroyed trust’ with King Charles after he leaked details of birthday call
Prince Harry reportedly “destroyed” the trust that was left with his father King Charles after a call on the monarch’s 75th birthday last year.
While the pair are understood to have drifted apart since Harry quit life as a senior royal in 2020, the father and son have still remained on talking terms despite the Duke’s numerous public attacks on the Royal Family.
The prince, 40, decided to disclose a number of private and personal conversations involving members of the Firm in a 2021 bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey, followed by the Netflix docuseries Harry and Meghan, and his bombshell memoir Spare.
Although the duke’s decision to talk publicly about his life as a Royal and make serious accusations about the family has damaged his relationship with his brother Prince William, who he is believed to no longer talk to, it appears King Charles is yet to turn his back on his youngest son.
Prince Harry called the King on his birthday last year with his two children Prince Archie, five, and Princess Lilibet, three, from their Montecito mansion in California.
On the call, Harry reportedly recorded a sweet video of the children singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to their grandfather, with these details later being leaked to the press. The Sussex camp were accused of leaking details of the private conversation.
According to the Daily Mail’s royal editor Rebecca English, the move “was considered to have crossed a line”.
A source told the paper: “A deeply private call between the King and his grandchildren and it ends up in a newspaper the next day. Really?”
The fear of private conversations being made public between the prince and the Royal Family has resulted in Harry no longer being trusted with important information, such as the King’s cancer diagnosis, which he reportedly found out about just before the rest of the world.
It is believed the pair would have shared one of their last phone calls on Prince Harry’s milestone 40th birthday, which the duke celebrated in September. No details of this phone call have been made public.
It is also likely Harry would have called his father on Thursday as the King celebrated his 76th birthday. They last saw each other in February after Harry flew across the pond following news of the monarch’s cancer diagnosis.
Former royal butler Grant Harrold, who served the King when he was the Prince of Wales between 2004 and 2011, previously said that trust could stop Harry being welcomed back into his family’s arms. When asked whether the duke could return to Royal life, Harrold told Express.co.uk: “I think the trust with the Royal Family is a big issue and I think in the back of their minds they are always going to worry.
“Never say never, time is a healer. I think it depends on what he does over the next couple of years if we can see him come back in. I’m sure his father would probably love to welcome him back with open arms, they’ve just got to be sure that what’s happened in the past few years is not going to happen again.
